Below you’ll find a summary of everything Samsung is announcing during its February Unpacked event, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup.
Samsung Galaxy S23: Notable refinements
Samsung’s Galaxy lineup is gaining a trio of S-series phones in the form of the Galaxy S23 lineup. More specifically, the additions include the S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra. It’s the same naming scheme and pattern that Samsung has used for a few years now, with the Ultra being a high-end flagship smartphone that serves as a Galaxy Note replacement for those who still want or need an S Pen experience on a smartphone.
Galaxy S23
The Galaxy S23 is the entry-level model, with a starting price of $799 and storage options of 128GB and 256GB. It’ll ship in Phantom Black, Cream, Green and Lavender colors, which is the standard color palette across all three models. The S23 has a 6.1-inch AMOLED FHD+ display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. There’s a triple camera setup on the back of the phone, with a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens. The S23 has a 3,900mAh battery. Also: How to use the Samsung Galaxy S23’s magical photoshop-like feature
Galaxy S23 Plus
The S23 Plus is a step up in terms of size and cost. For $999, you’ll get a phone with a 6.6-inch AMOLED FHD+ display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 256GB of memory. The camera setup is identical to the standard S23, with both devices using 8GB of memory. The S23 Plus has a 4,700mAh battery.
Galaxy S23 Ultra
The $1,199 S23 Ultra is pushing the boundaries of what a smartphone camera can do. The main wide camera is a 200-megapixel sensor. That’s up for 108 megapixels on last year’s S22 Ultra. For every 16 pixels the camera captures, Samsung uses software to combine them into a single large pixel, which should lead to better photos. Also: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro: Who did it better? Rounding out the camera setup is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide angle and two 10-megapixel telephoto cameras. The S23 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, and comes in 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage, with 8GB of memory reserved for the lower storage allotment and 12GB of memory kept for the higher storage models. The front-facing camera on all three models is 12 megapixels, which is a downgrade for the S23 Ultra since last year’s S22 Ultra used a 40-megapixel camera. All three phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor. Note the “for Galaxy” portion of that name; it’s important. Samsung and Qualcomm worked together to focus on improved performance. In fact, Samsung is going to use the chip globally, breaking the tradition of using its own Exynos processors outside of the US. More: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy: Everything you need to know The improved performance should net Galaxy S23 owners peak speeds of 3.36GHz, in addition to an improved GPU for gaming, along with camera and AI improvements. The S23 lineup is available to preorder right now, with deliveries and in-store availability kicking off on Feb. 17.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3: Laptops go Ultra
We didn’t see any tablets, smartwatches or earbuds during Wednesday’s Unpacked event. Instead, Samsung used the attention to shine a spotlight on its Galaxy Book 3 Windows laptop lineup. In total, Samsung unveiled three Galaxy Book 3 models with a total of four new laptops. There’s the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, Galaxy Book 3 Pro in 14 and 16-inch sizes, and the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360. Each model is designed, built and configured for specific types of users.
Galaxy Book 3 Ultra
The Book 3 Ultra is the flagship laptop and is equipped with a 16-inch AMOLED display with a 3K resolution of 2880x1800 and a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s the same type of display that Samsung uses in its smartphone lineup, and should offer deeper blacks and brighter, more vivid colors. I honestly can’t wait to see its display in person. More: Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra vs Apple MacBook Pro As for the internal specs of the Book 3 Ultra, Samsung is using Intel’s 13th Gen Intel Core i7 or Core i9 processors as options, along with either a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 Laptop GPU, 16GB or 32GB of memory, and 512GB or 1TB of storage. All of that adds up to a laptop that should be able to do pretty much anything you want it to do, including gaming, running 3D design software and heavy video and photo editing. It will come in one color: Graphite. The Ultra is priced as a premium laptop, with a starting price of $2,199.
Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360
The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 also comes with a 16-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. But it gains touchscreen capabilities and works with Samsung’s S Pen that comes in the box. Again, Samsung is using the 13th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors and Intel Iris X graphics. But instead of only having Wi-Fi for internet connectivity, the Pro 360 has an option 5G radio to connect to Sub-6 networks. The memory and storage configurations mirror the Book 3 Pro, as does the starting Book 3 Pro 360’s starting price of $1,449.
Galaxy Book 3 Pro
The Galaxy Book 3 Pro will be available with a 14-inch or 16-inch AMOLED 3K display, 13th Generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, and will rely on Intel’s Iris X graphics for a GPU. Memory spans 8GB, 16GB and 32GB options, with storage from 256GB or 512GB to 1TB. The Book 3 line starts at $999 and goes up from there depending on the configuration. Samsung didn’t provide any specifics about the Book 3 and Book 360, but presumably, they’ll be lower-tier versions of the Pro models. All of Samsung’s new Galaxy Book 3 offerings will be available for purchase starting Friday, Feb. 17.
